Summary
TheHalofranchise has been Xbox’s bread and butter for over two decades now. The series has served as the platform’s flagship exclusive for years, with a new generation of titles gracing every Xbox console. Just asMario and Kratoscome to mind when mentioning Nintendo or PlayStation, Master Chief goes hand in hand when conversations revolve around Microsoft’s Xbox brand.
Unfortunately, theHaloseries' reputation has been tainted after the last few entries, with its once prestigious place among gamers as one of the best shooters on the market being overtaken by its competition. Although the most recent entryHalo: Infinitewas by no means terrible, its troubled production and somewhat mixed reception have put the franchise’s future into question. A futureHalogame is inevitable, but Microsoft and 343 Industries may want to seriously consider taking the franchise back to the drawing board for a future installment.
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Bringing Halo Back To Its Former Glory
There was a time when theHaloseries was at the top of its game and had a crushing chokehold on the entire gaming industry. IfGoldenEyeon N64opened the door for first-person shooters on consoles to be taken seriously,Halo: Combat Evolvedcompletely kicked it off the hinges and took the world by storm. Just a few years later in 2004,Halo 2reached a fever pitch in terms of hype, a level of interest which carried through withHalo 3in 2007.
The series continued to stay popular throughoutthe Xbox 360 generation, with entries such asHalo 3: ODSTandHalo: Reachremaining fan favorites to this day. Problems only started to arise with the franchise’s foray onto the Xbox One withHalo 5: Guardians, an installment that immediately divided fans for myriad reasons. Issues only persisted withHalo: Infinite, as it suffered delays and multiple performance bugs despite initially being positioned as the flagship launch game for the Xbox Series X.
Halo Should Take a Page From the Competition’s Books
As great as any franchise may be, nothing lasts forever. Eventually, a formula will grow stale and require a set of fresh ideas to reinvigorate energy into the series. This happens to even the best of the best, something Xbox should learn from by looking at how Nintendo and PlayStation have handled properties in the past few years.Skyward Swordwas considered a dead-end for that era of 3D styleThe Legend of Zeldagames, so the studio took several years off to rework the next game into a fully open-world experience withBreath of the Wild.
Similarly,God of War: Ascensionfelt like an indication that the series had at that point run out of ideas. Once again,PlayStation hit the reset buttonand came back with a completely new take on the franchise, clearly drawing inspiration fromThe Last of Us.Halo: Infinitedid make many efforts to bring things back to basics, even returning to the iconic Halo ring of the original game that serves as the series namesake. However, in a double-edged sword fashion, this return to basics ironically felt like more of the same in many ways, while other shooter franchises pushed ahead and stole its thunder.
There are many avenues that theHaloseries can venture into to breathe new life into itself. It can draw inspiration from other games like howGod of Wardid withThe Last of Us, or perhaps even toss an unexpected new gameplay twist into the mix to keep players engaged. It remains to be seen exactlywhat may happen withHaloin the years ahead, but as proven before in gaming history, sometimes things need a fresh coat of paint, and Master Chief’s armor is beginning to look a little bit rusty.
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